


Reality

by inkkedalone



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Demigod Secret Santa 2017, Heavy Angst, like no thats not how feelings work, me being unsatisfied with how rick tied nico's feelings up in a cute little bow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 11:58:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13146231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkkedalone/pseuds/inkkedalone
Summary: Set after an alternate ending of the Blood of Olympus, Nico leaves the others behind to let his mind heal. He returns as a man who knows nothing but reality. (But mostly it's just Piper reflecting on how much everyone has matured.)*Piper's POV.





	Reality

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mariathemermaid17](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=mariathemermaid17).



> Happy Holidays everyone! And to my DSS especially! I tried to fit your guidelines as much as possible—hope I did okay (⊃д⊂)
> 
> *To people reading my other fic, All in Your Heart, an update will be out soon! I got caught up in my midterm exams and holiday things, so my apologies to you all!

The smart thing to probably do was to run _away_ from the weirdly suspicious shuffling sound that came from behind the trees of the dense forest—especially if you were playing Capture the Flag and were standing on the opposite team's territory. Too bad that the demigod named Piper McLean yearned for the inexplicable feel of a battle that night, and immediately rushed herself into the face of danger—belonging to what she _assumed_ to be another camper. She pulled the hood of her dark overgarment over her head, hoping to blend in with the earthy backgrounds of the winter evening and make for a quiet sneak attack. A dagger was poised in her hand, calloused fingers wrapped around the hilt like it was made just for her. She twisted her wrist to where a strike would be enough to inflict a moderate injury, but not enough to actually be anywhere near fatal. Thankfully, the new camp training lessons had made for the demigods these past few years harder to damage.

But despite the training, fighting a senior camper—most of all, one of the legendary Seven—wasn't an easy task for anyone. Chiron, the activities director, usually urged the elders to try their best not to embarrass the younger campers since they were always taken down so quick during training, which were now taught exclusively by those who had survived (as dubbed by Annabeth Chase) the Second Deity Wars: the latest failed uprisings of Kronos and Gaea. Piper found it to be a fitting name for the events. And even if she had only entered this world of monsters and magic during the second half of it all, fighting the literal mother earth wasn't exactly a piece of cake. She had the scars to prove that.

The leaves rustled pulling her from the past, and the daughter of Aphrodite couldn't tell if it was just from the howling winds or somebody stealthily weaving themselves through the seemingly endless forest. She crept closer, careful not to step on anything that would make a significant amount of noise. As the swishing sound of earth moving—almost clumsily, increased in volume, the young woman tensed, eyes narrowing and knife raised to make a cut deep enough to paralyze her enemy for, at the very least, an hour or so. She pushed the bushes away, yellowing leaves cold against her bare hands, and peered into the darkness, eyes shifting with every color of the rainbow as she searched for anymore signs of movement.

The ethereal glow of her blade seemed to increase as she spotted her target, almost like it was mimicking her own excitement. In the background, someone screamed, but it was too far away for her to be caught. Nevertheless, the figure in her sight whipped around so fast that she almost wanted to run away. Was this even a camper? Even the fastest of the Seven couldn't match that speed of agility. Piper caught a fleeting glimpse of a pale face that was most definitely human. At least it wasn't some ancient monster. No colors stuck out on the person, signifying the team they were on. Piper hoped it wasn't a newbie who had gotten lost, or else she'd waste her fun Friday night escorting them back out of the woods.

Before she could call their attention to herself, the figure suddenly slumped to the ground as if they were suddenly shot at point blank range, hitting the ground with a groan that made them sound seriously hurt. Piper winced sympathetically and lowered her weapon. The glow of it dimmed with disappointment as she jogged to the body on the ground, calling out a loud: "Hey, you alright?" When she didn't get a response, the woman pressed on a small button that was embedded into the fabric of her her team scarf. Faking pain had been against the rules in Capture the Flag, after a child of Hecate had convinced everyone that he had a broken arm and made a huge deal about it, taking up people's time with what was just a Mist illusion. The medics weren't very happy with him afterwards.

A small beep came out of a speaker hidden somewhere in the fabric, and the button blinked a green bright enough that it was able to shine through the saturated cloth. Leo had integrated it into their games system, letting the campers silently call for a medic without alerting the other teams of their respective locations. As she neared the person, something about them seemed eerily familiar. Their frame was clearly masculine, despite being lithe, and she could see their light puffs of breath in the chilly air. Piper pulled out a flashlight and reluctantly lowered her hood as she clicked it on. The piercing light made her squint and revealed a shivering body wearing torn clothes that were a size too big.

Piper aimed the torch to his face before gasping loudly. Albeit older and beat up, she could still just barely recognize the man with his freakishly pale pallor, whom had been missing for a total of five whole years. She dismissed her medic button and decided to take care of the demigod herself, subconscious completely forgetting about playing capture the flag. With her knife tucked away in its scabbard and flashlight between her teeth, Piper lifted the man, who was unhealthily light, onto her back and trudged as fast as she could through the woods of Camp Half-Blood. As she approached the border between the trees and the training areas, the dryads waved, but she ignored them, suddenly aware of how cold his body was. Was he fading again..? She felt a surge of desperation and pushed her legs to move faster, grateful for her endurance training with Frank.

"I need a medic!" she yelled when she got to into the open space of the camp, motioning as much as she could to Chiron with her hands occupied, shifting her shoulders so the centaur could hopefully see the unconscious man's face. Nobody really got the gist of what she was saying with the flashlight being clenched between her teeth, mostly because it came out like: "Ah nee a me ek!" Thankfully Chiron caught sight of the anomaly on her back, and he teacher's usual calm countenance twisted into a mixture of surprise and curiosity—a sight that would usually be amusing for the senior demigod.

The centaur translated Piper's message and called for the current head of the Apollo cabin to kindly take the man to the med-bay for him to be treated, presumably by Will Solace, the senior camper who watched over the camp's infirmary (which had expanded to be its own building with the help of Annabeth, instead of being a small and cramped room in the Big House). The daughter of the love goddess spat out the flashlight, watching it hit the ground and roll in the damp soil for a millisecond before meeting the demigod's eyes. They were sky-blue, just like the rest of his siblings. He was a person with an easily forgettable face, but Piper vaguely remembered him from the lessons she taught.

"Be careful with him." Piper's tone was warning and laced with a hint of her power as she spoke to the teen. "He might not look like much, but he's a hero."

"H-hero?" The boy stuttered, looking at the body with a hint of wonder. "You mean he's the _Knight of Ghosts_?"

Piper chuckled at the ridiculous name that the younger campers had given to the rumor that belonged to the demigod but nodded anyway. "Yeah, this is him. And he's also a senior like me, kid, so treat him like one when he wakes up alright?" She handed him over to the boy, and he took him with relative ease, making the woman just the teeniest bit jealous of the gift of testosterone.

With a huff, Piper straightened her posture. It was time to tell the rest of the Seniors that Nico di Angelo had returned.

* * *

 

They all stood at the edges of the ratty old ping pong table feeling nostalgic for the old times and missing past adventures. At least, that's how Piper interpreted it. She had managed to gather the Seven as well as anyone else who had been close to Nico together again, and it was like a big happy reunion. After the Second Deity Wars, most of them had parted ways and continued to train under the gods, or at the very least, tried to live a semi-normal life in New Rome or New Athens, the latter still being currently under development.

She looked upon their group, once a ragtag team of teens, comparing the current dispositions of her friends to the ones she had seen when she had first met them, and she was met with a large surge of pride for her demigod family, accomplished and finally happy.

Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, the still Praetor of the 12th Legion, was the first person that Piper started to scrutinize. Her wolf-like stare was as deadly as ever, but Reyna had grown softer to her loved ones and fiercer to her enemies over the years. She had now shed her armor that she had always worn when Piper had first known her, going for practical civilian clothes instead. She didn't need the armor anymore, now that she had found comfort within herself and could protect herself just fine. The woman had also came to accept the fact that she would never find love, that she wouldn't even _need_ it, as Piper's mother had so vaguely gave it to her. Piper and her had had quite a bit of a chat a couple weeks after the war, ending with Aphrodite confronting Reyna later to clear up what she meant about her godly statement.

Piper smiled wistfully at how much Reyna seemed more relaxed with herself and switched her gaze over to her best friend of over five years, Leo Valdez. He had grown an impressive couple of inches after the Wars, almost rivalling Percy Jackson at 5"9. The man was still scrawny in some ways, but he gained muscle during his years in the workshops of Bunker Nine while making heavy projects and fixing weapons. After he had returned from his "death" with Calypso, he had loosened up and became more serious, but it was for the better. His attitude had less jokes weaved into it as well, but Piper thought he seemed more true to himself this way, with him not having to fake anything anymore. He instead focused his time on mastering his unique firebending abilities, though he still occasionally burst into flame when flustered. His curly hair had grown long, and he never bothered to cut it himself, so Calypso had made him tie it up so it wouldn't get in his face. There were dark grease stains on his fingers and clothes as he anxiously tapped at the ping-pong table.

Oh right, she hadn't even told them why they were there yet. There was a light chatter in the room, and she cleared her throat to grab their attention—netting them in like a Black Friday sale as they quieted. Usually there wasn't a need to gather them all in person—Piper could have just as easily sent them an IM-text (a new replacement for phones that the Athena/Minerva and Hephaestus/Vulcan kids had designed) if it wasn't so serious.

Soon it was quiet enough to hear Percy mutter: "Dear gods, _please_ don't be another stupid prophecy." Annabeth jabbed him in the side, annoyed.

The couple had been the most important demigods during the Wars, surviving through both of them while playing huge roles at the same time. They had bonded considerably, now happily engaged at the young ages of 21, showing it off with the two simple gold bands clinging to their ring fingers. Annabeth had barely changed, except now, she had learned how to control her pride and not let it get the best of her. Percy, on the other hand, had let all the stress of the wars and Tartarus get to him just a little for a short time. But now he was attending therapy sessions with some minor god of health and was slowly healing his mind with their help.

Chiron, who stood at the side of Piper, sent Percy an exasperated look but didn't comment. Leo managed a snicker, but it did nothing to release the tension residing in the Big House. "Guys," Hazel reassured, "I'm sure it isn't anything remotely bad."

Hazel Levesque, still a small little thing, had matured considerably in the last five years. She was still going through puberty during the Wars and her death in the 1940s, making her a bit childish, but now she looked to be a capable young woman. Her warm chestnut brown hair was cut into a short bob style after the Wars due to the fact that Hazel hated having to waste time with the upkeep of her curls. Currently, she had braided extensions in, wrapped up into a neat bun and covered with a scarf. Her gold eyes shone with nervousness even as she said her own words, but Piper was glad that she could keep herself calm. On her last IM call, Piper heard that she was applying for the college in New Rome, and even though Piper knew they would accept her, being one of the Seven and all, Hazel had a tendency to overthink things.

Chiron agreed with a soft smile. "Indeed. Piper actually has pleasant news for you all."

"Yes," she agreed, and with a bright smile she said, "Nico di Angelo has returned."

Immediately, the room burst into a strong commotion. There was a couple of skeptical comments, mostly just from Leo and Frank, out of slight fear of the sheer power that the guy had, but the rest of the demigods, especially Hazel, Jason, Percy, and Annabeth, were celebrating through a combination of joyful tears and smiles.

"He's back? Oh, I knew he would return!"

"Eh, he was a little scary, but I'm glad Death Boy's alright."

"Where is he? Is he healthy enough to see?"

It was Jason who broke the question that was on everyone's minds, but the last one was a bit of a surprise coming from him. Piper realized that they were close before the son of Hades had vanished, but for Jason to assume that the man was unhealthy… She grinned warily.

"He's in the infirmary. Will says you guys can go in three at a time at the max." Everybody looked at Will before flicking their gazes to Hazel. She _was_ his sister, after all.

"Go," Jason urged softly. "You deserve to see him first."

Piper looked up at her boyfriend with a reassured smile. He had always been so aware of other people and their feelings—it was just in his personality.

Jason Grace had changed the least out of the Seven and Reyna. His kindness had never faltered, even towards an outcast such as the son of Hades, or even to his former home in the fifth cohort. He remained the diligent son of Jupiter, the appointed Pontifex Maximus of the gods, serving his duty by building temples out for the minor ones out there. The man had been one of the first to search for the _Knight of Ghosts_ after he had gone missing. Jason had grown attached to that name and was the one to tell all the little campers about the great ambassador of Pluto, Nico di Angelo, slayer of monsters and ghosts. Speaking of the name, almost everyone had accepted that as the title of Nico di Angelo, even the gods, except for Percy and Annabeth. They had all insisted that he should be named the _Ghost King,_ a title that he had stolen from Minos after defeating him. It probably represented him better, but the camps had already unanimously accepted the former by the time the news of it had arrived to the two, saying that it sounded way cooler (which in Piper's opinion, it sort of did, but if Percy and Annabeth, the ones who had known Nico the longest, had insisted on the _Ghost King_ , then she wouldn't go against it).

They waited in a fairly comfortable silence for the daughter of Pluto do return. Will had removed himself from the building earlier for the sake of their privacy, and once again the girl with the multi-chrome eyes felt yet another a surge of pride for how much they had all evolved. Will Solace had also grown considerably, similar to Leo. He had changed his haircut and dyed the ends a strawberry pink, blending pleasantly into his natural blonde. Now it was shorter in the back and longer at the top. His jawline had sharpened and his healing abilities had increased well. If Piper could rely on her memory correctly, then he was taking night classes at New Athens and helping out at the infirmary during the day, getting a special pass for being one of the best healers on the battlefields during the Second Deity Wars. The son of Apollo had taken a seat next to Frank, who had been silent for most of the time.

Frank—or Fai Zhang, as he now wished to be called in honor of his grandmother, had also gone through a little change during the past five years. He had spent most of his time training in Camp Jupiter's arenas, toning his muscles and living up to his title as Praetor and son of Mars. His anxiety about events had lessened and he had warmed up to everyone more, especially Leo. The man had almost completely discarded his nervous-complex when around the son of the blacksmith god, ignoring his fear of fire and befriending the man. They were now quietly chatting about something that Piper couldn't really care too much about.

After a couple of moments, Hazel stumbled into the rec room with red-rimmed eyes. She sniffled, and there was an awkward tension while everyone tried to figure out if she had been crying out of joy for the return of her brother, or if something outlandishly horrible had happened. Jason swallowed audibly, and Piper's hands started to sweat as they waited for the youngest to gather herself. The heat of the knife at her side seemed to grow with impatience.

"He's…" She managed to say one word before her eyes grew wet and flooded with tears. Her boyfriend moved to comfort her, and she pitifully cried into his chest. Piper tried to mentally reassure herself. Maybe it wasn't that bad, and Hazel's 1940s-era complex made it seem worse that it really was. Jason was the first to break the silence.

"Can I see him?" he inquired to Will, who was staring guiltily at his own lap. The healer nodded slowly without raising his head, and Jason wasted no time to ask before he grabbed Piper's wrist and dragged her into the infirmary. Piper shivered in the cold air as they stepped outside for the brief walk to the medical building.

* * *

 

Gladly for Nico, he was currently the only patient being treated, all other campers being miraculously free of any major injuries and sent off to give the Seniors their much needed privacy with the hero. Piper also figured that the Seven and the rest could've all piled into the small infirmary to save themselves the extra trouble, but the medics _really_ liked to adhere to their new "three-persons-per-patient" rule, as to not overcrowd and potentially stress the treatment rooms.

Speaking of treatment rooms, the new medical area was a small cottage-like building just to the right of the Big House, entrance facing towards most of the other camp areas for easier access in case of emergencies. Annabeth had designed the building, of course, and the senior demigods had built it themselves (though Piper credited most of the hard labor to Leo and Jason). The exterior was painted a coral red so saturated that it almost hurt to look at, even in the moon-lit darkness of the late evening. Will had told her it was like that so new campers could easily locate the building, but Piper seriously doubted that—mainly because most campers already landed themselves up in the infirmary as their main introduction to the demigod world.

Piper and Jason stepped through the door, fluorescent lights momentarily blinding their vision as they entered the sterile area. Here, they arrived in a sort of lobby, a small room with only a water fountain and a potted plant. Jason held open the next door for Piper like the gentleman he was and they entered the main treatment area, reserved for small injuries like a broken arm or something. There were cots lined up against the wall, each one separated with a baby-blue curtain (which were now pulled back since there was no one there). The second treatment area, meant for demigods with injuries that could be sustained for at least a week or two, was where Nico was currently residing. Jason pulled back the wooden door for his girlfriend again, but this time slow and cautious, in fear of what the future would hold. They stepped in and shut the door behind them.

Nico di Angelo was awake on his bed, upper body adorning one of the bright CHB shirts that contrasted greatly with the white sheets of the thin mattress, and just everything about him in general. His jacket—a bloodstained and ratty thing, was discarded in a wastebasket in the corner, and his Stygian Iron sword (wherever _that_ came from) was leaning against the side of the small corner table next to the cot.

The man had grown a bit since he left. His shoulders had broadened and his hair had grown longer and impossibly disheveled. If not for the chilling aura of his physical appearance and the lingering emotions of death, the man could have easily been a model. The absence of his outerwear left his severely scarred arms out in the open. Some were newly stitched together by Will, the threads pulling on the muscled skin like fabric. Others seemed to be there for quite a long time, varying in shapes and sizes. There were an endless number of white lines, so thin that the blade used for it had to be acute and the hand controlling it must have been severely deliberate. Piper didn't want to dwell too long on what that fact meant. Others were angry, slashy scars that splattered across his arms like paint—from monsters, probably. Piper's eyes trailed up to his face, where the damage was so unpleasant that she could barely stand to look at the person that she had almost called a friend. She _struggled_ to hold in a gasp, but Jason audibly failed, almost choking on air in his surprise.

From what they could see with Nico's head tilted downwards, the duo gazed upon his face and saw so many scars that couldn't all be counted, mixing in with his light freckles that were now almost obsolete. The Seniors both winced in sympathy; Nico had truly been living out on his own doing who knew what. Their eyes traced the edges of his face and his high cheekbones—scarred and slightly distorted with the growth of scar tissue. There were no new stitches on his _face_ , to Piper's relief, but honestly, she would have preferred them instead— _anything_ to remove the new scars that showed when Nico raised his head towards the sound of them walking in. Jason made a sound like he was trying to swallow a golf ball. He let out a strangled, "N-Nico?" before taking slow, hesitant steps towards the bed. He was treating him like a ticking bomb ready to explode at any second.

Nico flinched silently, tensing his shoulders up and backing up his body to the wall, spreading his palms across the sheets and feeling his way through the motion. His long bangs fluttered down over the top of his brow-bone, but he didn't seem to mind—he didn't have a _reason_ to—yet he blew them away with a huff, revealing two twin scars that ran from his brow bone, over his glassy eyes, to the very tops of his cheekbones. They were horrible—jagged and thin, and deep. If it wasn't for the fact that Nico didn't—couldn't, look directly at them, or the dull cloudiness in his once rich cocoa-colored orbs—now a desaturated shell of what they once were—Piper would have asked if he were okay.

She didn't think he was.

"Hello." His voice was rough and flat as he slowly relaxed, realizing that no immediate harm came to him. The man then proceeded to lean slightly to the left, almost like he was listening to somebody whispering in his ear. "Jason Grace and Piper McLean." He addressed them with an air of formality, like they were strangers meeting at a diplomatic meeting.

Piper stared at him for a bit, feeling not an ounce of emotion from the man. It was like he was a blank slate, wiped clean by some magic. It made her feel uneasy, that her love powers from Aphrodite couldn't detect any feelings from the son of Hades. Out of the corner of her view she saw Jason's tall figure move slowly to grab some wooden chairs and pull them up to Nico's bed, making slow and careful motions as not to startle the man again. Nico didn't react when he and Piper gingerly sat down. There was an awkward silence since none of them stepped up to say anything, or for lack of a better adjective, _dared_ to.

Suddenly a figure materialized next to Nico, a ghostly transparent being. Piper couldn't properly make out their face. It was almost constantly shifting, like an invisible wind was blowing each new countenance away. "Oh, he's just blind, not fragile, you dumb half-bloods. Speak!" Their voice came out shrill and high, but the daughter of Aphrodite couldn't place the vibrations on the spectrum as masculine nor feminine.

"Meet Tiresias," Nico said. "They're pretty annoying."

The figure sputtered, "I am _not_ annoying! I am the _blind seer_ , a prophet of Apollo, the—"

"They don't care." Nico waved his hand in the general direction of the ghost before muttering under his breath, "I have no idea why Hades thought you and I would get along well."

"Frankly, I don't either." The ghost huffed and then disappeared with a: "Have fun without my help, you uncultured savage."

Nico didn't seem fazed, and instead continued to sit silently, glazed eyes rolling at the ghost's manner. He didn't show any signs of pain despite the threads on his arm being pulled as he moved around.

"So?" Once again, Nico's tone portrayed easy nonchalance, and Piper was only _slightly_ irritated because of it. Yet she stayed quiet as Jason took the lead in their conversation.

"Where have _you been?_ Did you know how worried I, no, how _everyone_ was?"

"Jason, I—"

Jason growled frustratedly and interrupted the younger demigod, clenching his fists tight in frustration. "No. I've spent the last five years searching for you! Me, Piper, all the Seniors! You just _left_! I really, really thought you would have stayed, especially with Will here." A pause. "You lied to me."

"Yes...I did." The son of Hades, the _Knight of Ghosts,_ finally lowered his head in shame. His cold wall of safety had broken, revealing his true face. Piper was surprised that it only took Jason reprimanding him for him to turn over to his real feelings, letting his mask break away. He didn't speak an apology, but the young woman could almost feel the string of words hanging in the air, a thick blanket of guilty emotions waiting to spill out.

His heart was filled with love. Sorrowful, guilty, angry, painful love. She gasped at the sudden whirlwind of emotions that hit her like a thousand pounds of water crashing down at the bottom of a lake. Almost immediately, she understood.

"Nico, where did you learn how to do that?" Piper whispered, voice laced with an astonishment so strong it almost sounded scared.

"Do what?" Challenge was evident in his tone, and Piper gulped.

"Masking your emotions...I couldn't sense them at all! It was like you were—were—"

"Dead?" Nico helpfully supplied, giggling weirdly to himself. Jason's face twisted in heavy confusion, but he didn't comment on the situation. He knew of his girlfriend's powers. And Nico, as the child of Jupiter had always known and later told Piper, was his own sort of roller coaster ride, especially after that one encounter in Croatia, whatever _that_ had been. According to him and the rest of the Seven that had been close, the son of Hades had always been particularly moody, giving smiles at the strangest situations and glares at the happiest. It made Piper, someone who was greatly attuned to other mortals' emotions, unsettled and wary. And now that he had picked up on this, this _skill_ that she had never seen anyone master, it only did so much to raise her inner suspicion when she was trying so hard to be a good ally for the man.

Nonetheless, Piper continued her inner battle with the _Knight of Ghosts,_ driving forth her hypothetical sword into the unorthodox barrier he had crafted within the astral plane. "Nico, what exactly happened to you?" She voiced her question with as much Charmspeak as she could muster, hoping that it would overcome the demigod and make him speak his mind.

Thankfully it did, at least for a short while. As Jason muttered a quiet sputter of confusion due to him being affected as well, Nico di Angelo began to tell his story:

"I left. It's as simple as that, Piper McLean. Did you really think that your words could _actually_ affect me, a fourteen year-old boy who had come from a time where the likes of people like him were shunned or entirely non-existent, who had been struggling with depression since the age of ten, and had the only person who had ever truly loved him _die_ by the hands of a world that they had only just barely entered _,_ could ever believe your words when I had known you for less than a couple of months? I _certainly_ didn't. Not when you all had your stupid little fantasies that I would get better in an instant after everything that I had been through, and then you'd deal with a happy-go-lucky kid like the son of the sea described? Did _he_ ever get better? Or Annabeth? Did they both _ever_ completely heal themselves of the wounds that the gods had left to fester? I went away so I could heal on my own, with the help of my beloved ghostly therapists and my other friends, who at least had an ounce of understanding of what I was going through. These scars on my eyes that you're probably staring at—they were just something that happened along the way. Some idiot decided to actually blind me and then steal all my money. I only came to New York to tell him off after I healed enough to travel. Just landed in the wrong place."

To sum it up in a single sentence, he was angry. Tendrils of shadows had collected around the man and his sword, making his seemingly "blind and harmless" demeanor turn menacing. Jason's face was torn apart with guilt, making him match Piper's own. Screw _Nico's_ unsaid apology, they were the ones who really needed to say sorry.

"Whatever," Nico said, snapping out of his charmspoken trance. "You got what you wanted. I'm leaving."

"Nico, please. Wait!" Jason hurriedly protested, but the man had already sunk back into the shadow realm, leaving a guilty, guilty silence in his wake.

The next few days were a whirlwind of emotions for the Seniors. Percy and Jason had argued and argued over the son of Hades, blaming both each other and themselves at the same time for the way Nico turned out to be. Piper suspected that Jason knew something about Nico that he was holding back, but she didn't pry. Nico's explanation was already confusing enough. In the end though, she reflected, it was _all_ of their faults. Nico was entirely right—no one had ever properly looked out for him, and the closest thing he got was Hazel, but even she was too entangled with herself to see his hardships. She didn't know enough to help him out, and Piper doubted that Nico would have let her anyway, not wanting his little sister to entangle herself within his own web of problems. There was nothing that any of them could do but wait for the boy to come back to them and beg for the mercy that was forgiveness.

In all her short demigod years, Piper had never met anyone who was even close to how Nico di Angelo was. He was cold, but during the times on the Argo II, Piper could feel the warmth of his love for his closest, even if they were almost overcome by all the other dark sides of him. In Annabeth's prideful and mechanical words, he was a puzzle waiting to be cracked open and solved. The daughter of Aphrodite could only hope that he'd let them into his maze.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! <3


End file.
